Novgorod

The Novgorod Republic (1010-1478/1488), also called the Grand Duchy of Novgorod or the Principality of Novgorod, was a princely state of northwestern Russia that once encompassed Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and parts of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland. In 1478, after many years of war, Ivan III of Moscow conquered Novgorod and after ten years crushed all revolts against his rule.

History
The first prince of Novgorod was Yaroslav the Wise, who ruled Novgorod from 1010 to 1019. The princes were elected by the Kievan Rus court in the city of Kiev in present-day Ukraine, and they were effectively puppets of the Kievan monarchs. However, by 1080 the Rus states of Moscow, Smolensk, Ryazan, and Kiev had fragmented, so Grand Duke Ysevolod I of Novgorod set out to unite the lands in a large campaign. Under his rule, Novgorod conquered the Kievan Rus's former lands as well as some of the Baltic states, and Prince Vladimir of Novgorod conquered the Sami pagans of Finland.

Novgorod remained a divided state into the 1200s, despite the efforts of Grand Duke Ysevolod, but Moscovian noble Alexander Nevski defeated the Swedes and Teutonic Order in the early 1240s when they invaded his lands. He bribed the Mongol Empire to stay away from Novgorod, cementing his title as the new Grand Duke. Nevski not only repelled the invaders, but took the battle to their lands, and by the time of his death in 1279 he had taken Ukraine and Belarus from the Mongols and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and had expanded his Baltic lands in a war with Denmark and the Teutonic Orderr.

Under the Novgorodian rule, Kiev turned from an old city with some Islamic influence (under Mongol rule) to a new city with an Orthodox Abbey and large buildings. Nevski Christianized much of his lands, sending his priests to convert the pagans and Catholics to Orthodoxy. Novgorod became the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1488, after Ivan III of Moscow took control of Novgorod after ten years of crushing Novgorodian resistance to his rule.